You can cheat the DVD spec by using multiple menus and the auto activate feature of encore along with hidden buttons or using zero activate/selected opacity, I do have a tutorial on this procedure for use in Encore 1.5, but i am unable to post a direct link to it from here
I always use the Photoshop templates “PAL D1/DV, 720 X 576 (with guides)” or “PAL D1/DV Widescreen , 720 x 576 (with guides), depending if i am working with 4:3 or 16:9 video footage. Never had any probs with the templates at all.
I stuck with Verbatim for a while but still i had the odd DVD not playing at all. I changed to Ritek and there was no change to the amount of discs not playing, some folks swear by taiyo yuden (think that is the correct spelling). It is always a bit hit and miss as to what’s good and what’s not
my personal preference is to export as .AVI and import that into Encore, Encore does a good job of encoding to mpeg for you.
But we are all individuals and we all have our own ways of doing things 😉
And not all players will play a home authored DVD
the highlights only use a solid colour, if you want to use actual pics for “sub pictures” then you would need to use multiple menus and the auto activating feature of encore (can’t remember if this feature is in Encore 1.0 though?)
this pause wont be so noticeable on the finished DVD, make sure that you use “MENUS” and not timelines for the transitions as the use of menus will decrease the pause you talk about
sounds like the buttons are overlapping? check the button routing to check that there is enough space between the buttons and their respective bounding box